and we very much urge everyone to vote for this bill. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: mr. speaker, at this time i'd like to yield to the gentleman from arizona, mr. flake, and also take a moment to recognize him for his continuing efforts and doinged determination to ensure the safety of our country's borders. the speaker pro tempore: for how much time is the gentleman is recognized? mr. reichert: three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. flake: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i rise today in support of this legislation. it's been described it will help, it is needed on the border to close this loophole. to make sure we can better protect that border. i also want to pay tribute at this time to my friend and colleague, gabby giffords, for bringing this bill forward. for her work on this over the years. i have traveled to the border many times and meet with those

property holders there. particularly the ranchers. that she knows so well, that she has worked with over the years to develop legislation like this and the other legislation and initiatives she has pushed to make sure that we have a secure border. she met with these groups and then committed to have conference calls routinely to make sure that she was hearing their concerns. and she did so. over a long period of time. and i can tell you those who reside at the border, those who live there, who have property there, who work there, who have been there for generations, appreciation so deeply the work that she has done over these years. i want to pay tribute also to her family, especially her good husband, mark, for these difficult and challenging year for supporting her and for making sure that she had what she needed and that she is

recovering. what a wonderful story they have together and will continue to have. and also want to pay tribute to gabby giffords' wonderful staff. this has been a challenging year for them. and they have done everything possible to ensure that the people in the eighth district have received the representation that they deserve. they have worked long hours under difficult circumstances and made sure those constituents were well served. i was down in sierra vista earlier this week and -- last week and spoke to many of her constituents who recognize the efforts of gabby and her good staff in this difficult time. we of the arizona delegation will miss her in congress deeply. we are so appreciative of the service that she has rendered and we know that she will continue to serve whether in the future as an elected office

or whatever capacity she will continue to serve the good e

the speaker: any member wish to change her vote?

the speaker: on this vote the yeas are 338. the noes are 70. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the house will be in order. members could take their seats. the speaker: for what purpose does the gentlelady from california rise? ms. pelosi: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order. the speaker: without objection, so ordered. ms. pelosi: all of us come to

floor today, colleagues of congresswoman gabby giffords, to salute her as the brightest star among us, the brightest star congress has ever seen. when she came to congress and in her service and leadership here, gabby giffords brought to washington and the capitol the views of a new generation of national leader, from this floor she has spoken out courageously and led boldly, at times that demanded both. since the tragic events of one

year ago, congresswoman giffords has become an inspiring symbol of determination and courage to millions of americans. she has brought the word dignity to new heights by her courage. congresswoman giffords' message of bipartisanship and civility is one that all in washington and in the nation should honor and emulate. as gabby said in her video, which moved us all so much this weekend, we can do so much more by working together.

in that vain, mr. speaker, i want to thank you for the courtesies extended to enable this extraordinary ceremony to take place today. thank you, mr. speaker. s with your permission i'd like to acknowledge gabby's mother who is with us today, gloria and her father, spencer, who is watching from tucson. gloria. we thank you and we thank commander mark kelly, a hero in his own right as a astronaut, a

hero in his own right as a astronaut, and commander of a mission, but also our personal hero for the care and love that he has given to gabby over this past year. oh, and before that to help make her as gloria and spencer have the person that she is. i join all, i think all of our colleagues join us in thanking you, gabby, for the honor of calling you colleague and wishing you and mark much happiness and success. you will be missed in the house of representatives, but your legacy in this congress and your leadership in our nation will certainly endure. so thank you for being who you are, for lifting our country at

a very important and sad time and we wish you again much success with great gratitude, of admiration, and affection. we salute you congresswoman gabby giffords. does the gentleman seek recognition on my privilege to yield the floor to the distinguished majority leader of the house, representative cantor. mr. cantor: i thank the leader. mr. speaker, a little more than a year ago america witnessed a heinous attack on congresswoman gabby giffords, her staff, and the citizens of tucson.

this attack took six innocent lives, including gabe zimmerman's. injured 13, and shook all of us in the congressional community and in fact our nation to its core. this attack was a stark reminder that even in this country where freedom of speech and public demonstration are the corner stones of our democracy, citizens and public officials can face violence and danger. we will never forget those who lost their life on that fateful day or the brave efforts of our law enforcement community members and a very special intern who responded in the emergency. mr. speaker, i know i speak for all of my colleagues when i say we are inspired, hopeful, and blessed for the incredible progress that gabby has made in

her recovery. gabby's courage, her strength, and her down right fortitude are an inspiration to all of us and all americans. as gabby leaves the house today, mr. speaker, she's decided to focus her injuries on recovery, but she has refused to give up her fight for the people of her beloved arizona and her country. and as such, today, we will vote on her legislation to help secure our nation's southwestern border. gabby's bill gives law

enforcement greater authority to penalize those who seek to do us harm by engaging in illegal activity along the border. i commend gabby for her commitment to work on this and her unwavering commitment to a safer, more secure america. for the past six years congresswoman gabby giffords has served arizona's eighth district with dedication and dignity. i want to recognize her accomplishments here and thank her staff and their exceptional service, dedication, and, yes, courage, during these difficult times.

mr. speaker, i especially want to recognize her chief of staff, pia i know having met with pia personally, her having worked with our office, she has demonstrated incredible dedication to her co-workers, to you, gabby, and, mr. speaker, she has demonstrated unparalleled leadership for the people of the eighth district of arizona. to that i know they are and we are very grateful.

on sunday, mr. speaker, i received a call from captain mark kelly, as we all know gabby's husband, who informed me of gabby's decision. mark has been steadfast in his support of his wife and forever by her side as her best friend and partner. though gabby may be leaving washington today, i know this won't be the last we see of her or mark. we wish you, gabby, we wish mark together the best as they continue the process of gabby's recovery. i will say once again, mr. speaker, congresswoman gabby giffords' strength against all odds serves and will continue to serve as a daily inspiration to all of us. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back.

the speaker: the gentlelady from california. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the leader. now pleased to yield to gabby's friend, distinguished minority whip of the house, congressman hoyer. mr. hoyer: i thank the leader for yielding. i thank the speaker for ensuring that we would have this opportunity to speak to our friend, gabby giffords. i thank the majority leader for his comments. none of us on this floor are talented enough to summon the rhetoric that all of us feel in our hearts. we have young men and women

arrayed on the fields in iraq, afghanistan, and other troubled spots in the world. they are fighting for freedom and democracy. and too many of them are injured on those fields. our beloved colleague, gabrielle giffords, was injured on the field in the exercise of that democracy. and in being injured, she has become an example for us, for all americans, indeed all the world of courage, of clarity of purpose, of grace, of responsibility, of a sense of duty. which she exercises this day.

i love gabby giffords. i was honored when she first ran for office before she was elected to go to her district as i have done for so many others in this country, to stand by her side, to walk down the streets of her community with her, to see in her the beauty not only of person, many of us see the outward vissage of us all, but gabby's beauty is in the heart. in the soul, in the spirit. the representatives of america has been made proud by this extraordinary daughter of this house who served so well during her tenure here, who felt so

deeply about her constituents and cared so much for her country. gabby, we love you. we have missed you. mr. speaker, i don't know whether you were able to hear that response as gabby looked with that extraordinary smile, the twinkle in her eyes as she said to me and to all of you, and i miss you. do any of us doubt that that is the case? pia, we are blessed in this house to be served by extraordinary people of which you are a perfect example, a people who love us but love

their country even more, who serve our constituents so extraordinarily well, who evidence every day care for us and care for the work that we do which we could not do, pia, without people like yourself and all of your colleagues that we call staff. thank you. mr. speaker, god has blessed gabrielle giffords and he has sent a blessing to all of us in

the person of gabrielle giffords, and god blessed gabby as well with an extraordinary mom and dad and an extraordinary partner in life. mark, we owe you a debt of gratitude. our country owes you a debt of gratitude. i look forward to the day when you and gabby will be returning here, return to full health and full ability to serve. gabby, america thanks you. it thanks you for the example that you have given, of overcoming adversity and doing so with the spirit unparalleled. god bless you and god speed.

ms. pelosi: mr. speaker, i know that every member in the house would like to associate himself or herself with the remarks of our distinguished majority leader and democratic whip, especially in regards to gabby, of course, but also pia. it is something that every day we have the chaplain or the guest chaplain come to the floor and ask god's blessing on this house. one of those blessings to us has certainly been the leadership and the life and service that will continue for many years to come of congresswoman gabby giffords. we focus on her. she is our friend. we look at her remarkable recovery with great pride. she also carries in her need for recovery the sorrow of so

many others who lost their lives today. so the apparent physical recovery that we see is something even more than we could ever imagine for the challenge that congresswoman giffords has faced. god gave her a very special mission. he gave it to gabby giffords because he knew she could carry that burden because he had blessed her with so many, many gifts and a very loving family to make her the person that she is. how fortunate we have all been to be part of her life until now and hopefully for a long time to come. she will miss us. it is -- so now it is with very mixed emotions, mr. speaker, that i yield to gabby's very good and close friend, i say mixed emotions because we want her to stay with us, intellectually known, gabby has

made the right decision. hopefully it will be liberating for her in many ways. but that she goes without knowing the close ties we all feel personally to her. and so, mr. speaker, it is my honor to yield to a very close friend of gabby, a leader in this house, congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. the speaker: the gentlelady from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: if i could ask my colleague to join me at the well. thank you, mr. speaker, and madam leader. mr. whip and majority leader, i couldn't prepare anything this morning because i knew i would

not be able to hold this together very long. i am so proud of my friend and it will always be one of the great treasures of my life to have met gabby giffords and to have served with her in this body. we have all been through such a tumultuous year. the nation has been through a tumultuous year. no one more tumultuous than gabby and her family and her constituents in her beloved home city of tucson, arizona, and i know being able to be gabby's voice today, knowing her as well as i do, the one thing that has not been said is that gabby wants her constituents to know, her constituents whom she loves so much in southern arizona, that it has been the greatest professional privilege of her life to represent them, that she loves them as a fifth

generation tucsonian, that her public service has meant a great deal to her and that this is only is a pause in that public service and that she will return one day to public service to represent them as she has so capablely for the last 5 1/2 years -- capably for the last 5 1/2 years. and let me just say a point of personal privilege for the last year it has been one of the honors of my life and the most important thing to remember that no matter what we argue about here on this floor or in this country that there is nothing more important than family and friendship and that should be held above all else

and i will always carry that in my heart and even though i know we won't see each other every day, gabby, we will be friends for life. for life. i'm so sorry. my privilege to read this letter on behalf of gabby and her family and her constituents. january 25, 2012. the honorable john boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. dear speaker boehner, in 2001 strongly holding the belief that there is no higher calling than serving my country, i went from selling tires in my tucson family business to being a freshman representative in the arizona state house, and for 10 years i served in the years legislature, in the united states congress and after marrying mark, as a proud military spouse.

always i fought for what i thought was right -- never did i let pass an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideas. in public service, i found a venue for my pursuit of a stronger america, by ensuring the safety and security of all americans, by producing clean energy here at home instead of importing oil from abroad and by honoring our brave men and women in uniform with the benefits they earned. i found a way to care for others, and in the past year i have found the value that is unbreakable even by the most vicious of attacks. the tragic january 8 shooting in tucson took the lives of six beautiful americans and wounded 13 others, me included. i'm sorry. not a day goes by that i don't feel grief for the lives lost and so many others torn apart.

christina taylor green, dorothy morris, john rolle, phyllis, dorwin and gabe zimmerman. each in their own way they committed their lives of serving their families, community and country and they died performing a basic act of citizenship that's at the heart of our greatness as a nation. they will be required always by their country and by their congress. i don't remember much from that terrible day, but i have never forgotten my constituents, my colleagues or the millions of americans with whom i share great hopes for this nation. to all of them, thank you for your prayers, your cards, your well wishes and your support. and even as i have worked to regain my speech, thank you for your faith in my ability to be your voice. the only way i ever served my

district in congress was by giving 100%. i would add it's 150%. this past year, that's what i have given to my recovery. thank you for your patience. from my first steps and first words after being shot to my current physical and speech therapy, i have given all of myself to being able to walk back on the house floor to represent arizona's eighth congressional district. however, today i know that now is not the time. i have more work to do on my recovery before i can begin serve in elected office. this past year my colleagues and staff have worked to make sure my constituents were represented in congress. but if i can't return, my district deserves to elect a u.s. representative who can give 100% to the job now. for that reason i have submitted the attached letter of resignation to arizona governor jan brewer. amid all that was lost on january 8, there was also hope and faith. this past year it is what i

have often come to, hope in a our government can represent the best of a nation, not the worst, faith that americans working together in their communities, in our congress can succeed without qualification, hope and faith that even as we are set back by tragedies or profound disagreement. in the end we come together as americans to set a course toward greatness. every day i am working hard. i will recover and will return and we will work together again for arizona and for all americans. sincerely, gabrielle giffords, member of congress.

miss pa lossy: mr. speaker, in appreciation once again for your courtesies enabling this to happen, i yield back the balance of our time. the speaker: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the chair would remind all members to be in proper business attire when you come to the floor of the house. without objection, five-minute voting will continue. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from washington, mr. reichert, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3801 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3801, a bill to amend the tariff act of 1930 to clarify the definition of

aircraft and the offenses penalized under the aviation smuggling provisions under that act, and for other purposes. the speaker: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 408. the nays are zero. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative shall the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.

the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to section 123-8-b-3 of the floyd d. spence national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2001 as amended, and the order of the house of january 5, 2011, of the following member on the part of the house to the united states china economic and security review commission for a term to expire december 31, 2013. mr. daniel m. slain of ohio. the clerk: mr. daniel m. slain of ohio.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island rise? mr. lightningy vin: i ask to be removed as a co-sponsor to h.r. 3784. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house the following personal request. the clerk: leave of absence requested for mr. culberson of texas for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the request is granted.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina rise? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourn today it adjourn to meet at 11:00 a.m. on friday, january 27, 2012, and furt when the house adjourns on that day it adjourn to meet at noon on tuesday, january 31, 2012, for morning hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on budget have until 3:00 p.m. on monday, january 31, 2012, to file a report -- to file reports on the following measures. mr. mchenry: h.r. 3582, h.r. 3578 and h.r. 3581. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. mchenry: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan, be authorized to insert extraneous material in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the chair is prepared for any

one-minute response. for what purpose does the gentlelady rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. foxx: mr. speaker, my constituents are outraged at the lack of leadership coming from this administration, senate democrats. last night the president came here and talked about working with any projects that would put americans to work. well, mr. speaker, house republicans have passed 27 bipartisan bills that helped job creation and the senate democrats refused to take action on them. we also gave the president a bill that creates over 20,000 jobs associated with the keystone pipeline, a project that not only creates jobs but reduces energy costs and leads us to independence from middle eastern oil. but president obama has once again put politics first and halted the keystone project. even one of the president's strongest allies, the unions, have said the president's wrong on this issue. it's clear that in an effort to

save his job, the president is willing to sacrifice the jobs and energy security for americans that keystone will create. mr. speaker, the president keeps asking for blank checks so he can do more stimulus projects. house republicans will continue our progress in crafting a pass -- with and passing bipartisan legislation like the 27 bills that await action in the senate. republicans will continue to create an environment in which businesses can grow and create jobs and we'll continue to work to reduce our dependence on middle eastern oil. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? jackson scrax jackson address the house for one minute -- ms. jackson lee: address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady may proceed. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, mr. speaker. we just saw a very moving ceremony to acknowledge our dear friend and colleague and again i

offer my appreciation to her service, but in the course we mentioned her staff as well and i wanted to make sure that i added my appreciation to congresswoman giffords' staff. but that leads me to say that we depend upon the staff of this house and our personal staff and committee staff. not often do we get to know them personally, but i rise today to salute steve perkins who will be retiring and thank him for his service to this august body. to each and every member, remember those who serve in this body do not recognize democrat or republican. what they recognize is the great service to america. mr. perkins has served this congress with excellence, commitment and dedication. he truly should be commended and admired and respected for his service to the nation.

i wish him well in his retirement with his family, his children and his grandchildren, and i know that he will continue to be a very special person in the hearts of all of us. steve perkins, we thank you for your service, thank you for letting us know how much you care about this institution, how much you care about us. let me say, we care about you. thank you for your service to this nation and to this great body, the house of representatives of the united states of america. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to honor lieutenant colonel kenneth getzky. one of my constituents who landed at home what beach on d-day and went on to fight at the battle of the bulge. mr. paulsen: he later received the purple heart and the bronze star for his service.

during the battle, to liberate occupied france, lieutenant colonel's mission was to protect some of paris' most famous landmarks. from being destroyed by retreating nazi forces. earlier this month the people of france formally thanked him and awarded him the french legion of honor. i want to thank colonel getzy for his service and also congratulate him on receiving france's highest honor and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, in 2001, strongly holding the belief that there is no higher calling than

serving my country, i went from selling tires in my tucson family business to being a freshman representative in the arizona state house. and for 10 years i served in the arizona legislature, in the united states congress and after marrying mark as a proud military spouse. always i fought for what i thought was right. but never did i question the character of those with whom i disagreed. never did i let pass an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideals. in public service i found a venue for my pursuit of a stronger america, by ensuring the safety and security of all americans, by producing clean energy here at home instead of importing oil from abroad and by honoring our brave men and women in uniform with the benefits that they earned. i found a way to care for others and in the past year i have found a value that is unbreakable even by the most vicious of attacks. the tragic january 8 shooting in tucson took the lives of six

beautiful americans and wounded 13 others, me included. not a day goes by that i don't feel grief for the lives lost and so many others torn apart. christina taylor green, dorothy morris, john roll, phyllis schneck and gabe zimmerman embodied the best of america. each in their own way they committed their lives to serving their families, community and country and they died performing a basic but important act of citizenship that's at the heart of our greatness as a nation. they will always be remembered, always. they will be remembered always by their country and by their congress. i don't remember much from that terrible day but i have never forgotten that my constituents, my colleagues or the millions of americans with whom i share great hopes for this nation. to all of them, thank you for your prayers, your cards, your well wishes and your support. and even as i have worked to regain my speech, thank you for your faith and my ability to be

your voice. the only way i ever served my district in congress was by giving 100%. this past year that's where i -- what i have given to my recovery. thank you for your patience. from my first steps and first words after being shot to my current physical and speech therapy, i have given all of myself to being able to walk back onto the house floor this year to represent arizona's eighth congressional district. however, today i know that now is not the time. i have more work to do on my recovery before i can again serve in elected office. this past year my colleagues and staff have worked to make sure my constituents were represented in congress but if i can't return my district deserves to elect a u.s. helicopterive who can give -- representative who can give 100% to the job now. for that reason i have submitted the attached letter of resignation to arizona governor. amid all that was lost on january 8, there was also hope and faith.

this past year it is what i have often clung to. hope that our government can represent the best of a nation, not the worst. faith that americans working together in their communities and our congress can succeed without qualification. hope and faith that even as we are set back by tragedy or profound disagreement, in the end we come together as americans to set a course toward greatness. every day i am working hard. i will recover and will return and we will work together again for arizona and for all americans. signed, sincerely, gabrielle giffords, member of congress. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from illinois, mr. shimkus, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. shimkus: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my

remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the leadership for allowing me this time to come to the floor. i'm going to do two short items and then address the weekly discussion on high level nuclear waste. and yucca mountain. first, because of the day and our focus on the sacrifice of our colleague, gabby giffords, let me update my colleagues on senator mark kirk's progress and since he was a former colleague in this chamber -- senator kirk's early prognosis is good and his doctors are pleased with his progress at this point. as the senator continues his recovery, his offices will remain open to constituents and

i would just add very similar that congressman giffords' staff continued to do the best job they could to serve the constituents of her congressional district while she was unable to attend many events. staff did really pick up the ball and carry it for her as senator kirk's staff will continue to do that for the state of illinois. during mark's five terms in the house of representatives and his first in the senate, senator kirk has worked tirelessly on behalf of his constituents, from taffling around the state hold -- traveling around the state holding town halls to working with members on both sides of the aisle to build consensus on key issues, to traveling overseas to advocate for strengthening american security and relationships with foreign nations, senator kirk has demonstrated endless energy and dedication in public service. i have no doubt that he will return to the senate with the same zeal and passion for his

job that he had when he first entered this chamber 12 years ago. secondly, mr. speaker, i'm a member of the nato parliamentary assembly. it's really an organization designed around legislators from our nato countries. it's been in existence over 50 years. we, since the legislative bodies in most chambers are the funding for the military, it's important that the legislative body talks about nato's role in the past, in the present and in the future. during my time as a member of the nato parliamentary assembly i became great friends with a member of the british parliament who recently passed away and i'd like to pay tribute to him. mr. speaker, i would like to pay tribute to my british friend and colleague, frank cook, who passed away on january 12. frank was a long-time colleague

of mine in the nato parliamentary assembly. as you know, the assembly brings together members of congress with their counterparts from canada and europe to talk about issues that concern us all. as a leading member of the defense security committee, frank cook made vital contributions in debates in the assembly from the mid 1980's to 2010 on issues as widely ranging as afghanistan, arms control with russia, nato's operation in kosovo, and its relations with ukraine and other partners. he also served as vice president of the assembly. frank embodied the spirit of the transatlantic alliance. he was never shy to express his opinions with a clear mind and a sharp wit. even when frank and i disagreed on policy we remained friends and allies because we shared the values that underpin nato. freedom, democracy, fundamental human rights and the rule of law. we both believe that the nato alliance was critical to our collective security and defense

and that we as legislators in our own countries needed to do everything we could to make sure it was capable of meeting the threats we faced in the 21st century. i can recall many unforgettable experiences i've shared with frank. i observed him lead a forceful debate on the controversial issues and get all sides mad like a debate he held in quebec in 2006. . he and i took incoming fire from the taliban in 2007. during the summer of 2010 we visited greenland together. we visit add military encampment called point north, north of the arctic circle. the dogs there pulled sleds and provide early warning for polar bears. they appear quite scary but frank was the first to animal up and pet them. frank was a throwback to a time when characters could be listed, by being listed in

parliamentary speak that means being put on the party list for election, so frank was a throwback to a time when characters could be listed and serve constituencies. best perf eyes himself. not a small fete for a brit. i learned a great deal from him and will deeply miss -- he will be deeply missed by many of his friends at the nato parliamentary assembly and here in congress. now to the business at hand, mr. speaker. again, thank you for letting me come down once again to talk about a very pressing, important issue in this country. one that i'm going to continue to use the bully pulpit to help educate my colleagues, the public as a whole, even you, mr. speaker, on the -- addressing the need to address high level nuclear waste in this country. it's an issue that's been around since the development of

the nuclear weapon system that we use to win world war ii. some of that waste is still there from that time. and it still sits in the same location we had 40, 50 years ago. it's hit the international stage with the experience that japan has had in fukushima and the tsunami, not just the generating facility themselves but what happened to the nuclear waste on site? and an international nuclear disaster that still is making it difficult for our allies in japan and really causes us to make sure that we look at our system to understand what is our national policy on high level nuclear waste and why are we not moving forward. what i have done in my times

coming to the floor is go around the country and highlight where nuclear waste sites are and compare it to where we by federal law have stated our nuclear waste should be stored. this is all under the 1982 energy policy act. it was located in that law in 1987. let's go through the area for a brief review. the first site -- this is what happens when we no longer have pages on the house floor. to help us. the first site that i visited personally was in washington state and the site is called hanford which was a good place to start in this tour of where

nuclear waste is because the vaths majority of nuclear waste stored here is department of defense, and department of energy waste that was used to develop our nuclear weapon systems during world war ii. there are 57 million gallons of nuclear waste on site, mostly in large tanks. 750,000 to a million gallons each. the waste is stored 10 feet under ground. the waste is 250 feet above the water table. and the waste is one mile from the columbia river. and -- which is not listed there, some of that waste is leaking from the tanks. so let's compare it to the site that we have decided by law to establish which is yucca mountain. yucca mountain has currently no nuclear waste on site. the waste would be stored 1,000 feet underground. the waste is 1,000 feet above the water table. and the waste would be 100 miles from the colorado river.

nuclear waste next to the columbia river or nuclear waste stored underneath a mountain in a desert. that's site number one. next not to pick on other states and to the exclusion of mine, the next location i talked about was the zion power plant, demission, high level nuclear waste still on site. let's compare it to yucca mountain. 65 casks containing 1,135 metric tons of nuclear waste. it's stored above the ground. five feet above the water table. and 1,300 feet from lake michigan. of course this is lake michigan right there. part of the time what i have been doing is highlighting a location and looking at the states surrounding, the state of wisconsin has two nuclear power plants, both on lake

michigan, similarly located. of course the stats for yucca mountain are the same. let me adhere that yucca mountain, we have already spent $15 billion to study this site. 20 years in the making. and we still wait. i'm not sure if this is still in the proper order that i have come down to the floor, but the next nuclear power plant that i wanted to highlight was a nuclear generating station. this one is in california and it's right next to the pacific ocean. kind of on the opposite side from where japan is. you can see the waves and how close it is to the pacific ocean.

at this power plant there's 2,300 waste rods on site. the waste is stored above the ground and in pools. adjacent to the pacific ocean, as i said. and 45 miles from san diego. now, yucca is 90 miles to 100 miles from las vegas. it's almost in the -- the government property is the size of the state of rhode island, it's controlled by a couple entities, department of energy being one, the bureau of land management being another, and the third one, it is the nuclear test site where we tested nuclear weapons years ago. i didn't mention in zion, zion is about 45 miles from chicago, illinois.

another nuclear power plant that is in massachusetts, and you can see it's next to cape cod, the pilgrim generating facility, 2,918 spent fuel assemblies on site. waste is stored above the ground in pools. and why is that important? part of the problem in fukushima daiichi is that there was waste stored in pools. because of the disaster we are not sure what happened, either the foundation was cracked and the coolant water left the pond or the power went off, the water couldn't circulate. the heat by the rod evaporated the water, then the heat on heat caused the rods to in essence start to melt, which is a very dangerous situation. so many of our nuclear waste throughout this country is stored in pools around the country.

why is that important? it's because it's our national policy based upon the law passed in 1982 followed up by the location site in 1987 we would have fun geological repository. not a nuclear waste stored all over this country, but we would have one centralized location. it's important to add that in the next couple days the blue ribbon commission will come out with a report and we think it's going to say, it's in the national interest to have one geological repository for high level nuclear waste. and we await with interest that report. now we go to idaho national lab , the federal national laboratory in idaho. comparing it to where nuclear waste would be stored if we would continue to comply with

federal law. and we have in idaho there is 5,090 canisters of waste. a good point to note on this waste, a lot of this waste, again, is from the research done on nuclear power, nuclear weapons systems, and in that process you create waste as in hanford as they are trying to decide what to do with the waste, the containment system to transport the waste have all been designed with the plan to store in yucca mountain. so when you look at the 53 million gallons in hanford and we are going to move that waste out of washington state into yucca, time, effort, energy, and money have gone in to preparing the technology to move this waste and store it in

yucca mountain. similar to idaho national labs. currently, though, we have 5,090 canisters on site, waste is stored above the ground, waste is 500 feet above the water table. and the waste is 50 miles from yellow stone national park. -- yellowstone national park. then we go to the great southeast in the state of georgia. and we look at the savannah generating station where you have 6,300 canisters of nuclear waste on site. water is stored right below the ground. zero to 160 feet above the water table, and as you can see from the photo, it's right next to the savannah river. part of the debate that the environmental lab and anti-nuclear folks put it, it's

about water in the desert and how it's going a effect nuclear waste. and part of the educational process that i have learned going through the different sites really can't find a nuclear power site, of course and all nuclear waste generated is still on site, that's not close to a body of water. that's this whole issue about would you rather have it next to a body of water or in a desert. i think that debating point is pretty clear. so that's savannah generating station versus yucca mountain. . right before the end of last year i calm down on the floor and the location that i was to talk about next of course i got off topic a little bit and didn't really clarify and identify as turkey point. turkey point is in the state of florida. and of course it's again we are

comparing it to yucca mountain, and turkey point you have 1,074 metric tons vehicles of spent fuel on site. the waste is stored above the ground in pools. waste is on biscayne bay at sea level. and the waste is 10 miles from the everglades. versus yucca mountain, again, defined by the nuclear waste policy act of 1982, yucca was established by federal law by this chamber and other chamber and the president of the united states in 1987. yucca mountain is in a desert. the storage site would be underneath a mountain in that desert far away from any population that would be immediately affected.

another location that i was to address last week, which i also got off topic, is the sequoyah nuclear generating station, it's in tennessee but right on the south carolina border. at sequoyah there is 1,0 4 metric ton vehicles of spent fuel on site. the waste is stored above ground in pools and dry casks. waste is 25 feet from the ground water. and waste is 14 miles from the -- from chattanooga on chickamauga lake. once i get to new states i haven't identified, then i have gone and looked at the

senators' past statements and voting record on this because we had a vote on the floor this year on whether we should move forward. with the dowelers to finish the final study by the nuclear regulatory commission and that vote was 297, yes. there are only 435 members in this chamber. huge bipartisan vote that really, i sent the signal, where the will of this chamber is. so can't we move forward? . the issue is the majority leader of the senate hatches to be from the state of -- happens to be from the state of nevada and to really get the senate to move you have to hold the senators from the states accountable, at least for them to state a position as to where they stand on where the nuclear waste currently is and really what is the proposal on what we should do with it. so having done that before i

then look at the senators from the state of tennessee and the state of south carolina, senator alexander is a yes, senator corker is a no, senator burr is a yes. yes, let's move our nuclear waste to yucca mountain, in the desert, underneath a mountain. senator hagan is silent. what do i mean by silent? we couldn't find any public statements. of course the senate has not cast a vote so that we hope -- maybe the senator at some time will make her position known but as of now we will list her as being silent. we really need to find out where the senators are, under the senate rules, to break a filibuster you have to have 60 votes. so i'm hoping that through this

process we'll finally tally them up which is what i'll do at the end of my time and kind of show you where we are so far. i still have a couple of places around the country to address. remember that these are just one -- many states like mine, i pointed out zion, but we actually have six sites and 11 reactors. illinois is a huge nuclear power plant. 50% of our electricity comes from nuclear power. and so even though i'm mentioning a few, you can multiply that by three as far as how much nuclear power plants are out there and if there is a nuclear power plant in your state then your state is the storage site for thuke leer waste right now -- for nuclear waste right now. the state that i came to the floor on to highlight today and the region is the state of

arkansas and the state of missouri. now, missouri, as i know, i'm from illinois, i'm from southern illinois, i know the state of missouri well. the state of missouri has a nuclear power plant so you could just -- the same thing i'm mentioning here on this power plant in arkansas, you can make for the calloway plant. so let's look at the one we've chosen which is a power plant called nuclear one. again, nuclear one has 1,260 m.t.v.'s of spent fuel on site. versus none at yucca mountain. nuclear one has waste stored above the ground in pools and dry casts -- casks. obviously there's no nuclear waste at yucca mountain but if there was, where would it be stored? it would be stored 1,000 feet above -- underneath the ground. nuclear one has waste adjacent

to a water supply. of course you can see the photo right here. as i've highlighted, almost every nuclear power plant or waste site, there's water nearby. well, of course yucca mountain's in a desert. so the waste will be stored 1,000 feet above the water table. nuclear one is waste, and i can't pronounce it, on a reservoir on the arkansas river. now, what's a reservoir? i think by definition a reservoir is a body of water that you've created to hold water for public use. whether that's for recreation or for drinking and stuff. so, there you have, you've got nuclear one right on this reservoir. now, what about the senators from the state of arkansas?

i mean, are they happy with this nuclear waste onsite? let's look at their position. we actually have a few other states represented too. first from the state of arkansas , we have senator boozman, one of our former colleagues, has a stated position and cast votes in support of yucca mountain. senator pryor, as far as we can tell is silent. from iowa, senator grassley is a yes. senator barker is not only silent, he's a no. maybe because iowa doesn't have nuclear power plants in the state of iowa, but there's definitely some around there and it must be his position that nuclear waste stored around this country is ok.

then you go to the state of kansas, another colleague from -- former colleague, senator moran has voted yes on yucca mountain. it's a good place to put high level nuclear waste. senator roberts also a yes vote from the state of missouri -- yes vote. from the state of missouri, senator blunt is a yes. on moving high level nuclear waste from the state of missouri to a desert underneath a mountain. senator mccaskill is silent on this. again, since i'm next door to the state of missouri, i know that the calloway nuclear power plant is in the state of missouri and senator mccaskill is silent on that issue. so what's our scorecard? where are we at with going around the country? because remember, mr. speaker, because of the senate rules, we

have to get to 60 to really push something through. so, we've identified what we believe is actually 36 yes votes so far. we've identified 11, actually 10, this should be updated. we have 10 that we really don't know their position. in other words, they have no public statement. or they have not cast a vote. and then we have eight definite noes which means they have made public statements in opposition to moving nuclear waste underneath a mountain in a desert or they have cast a vote somewhere in some time or signed a letter. we're happy to be corrected on any of this analysis of where senators are. but i think it's time and -- that we start to get some

accountability in this process. why have we not moved forward on yucca mountain? and the answer is pretty clear. that when this administration was running for the presidency he, wanting to get support from the senior senator from the state of nevada, promised -- promised not to move forward. that's fine. it was a political decision, he's holding to hit commitment to do that. at the cost of what? nuclear waste being held across this country in states around this country, in places that after fukushima daiichi you might argue might not be the best place to have this nuclear waste. so the president and majority leader of the senate has placed us in the political realm. elections have consequences. we're approaching an election cycle. there will be senators on the

ballot in november. what is their position on what their state and what should be the national position on what we do with high level nuclear waste? so we do know we've got a lot who are on record saying, nuclear waste ought to go in a single repository in a desert underneath a mountain. we do believe that the blue ribbon commission this week will say, this country need as single repository -- needs a single repository. we do have 10 senators that we do not know their position and to their credit we have eight that we do know their position, in opposition. but it looks from being a casual observer and if the trend continues that we're getting close to a majority of u.s. senators that say that we should have a single repository and that single repository should be what's been identified under the nuclear waste policy act and the following legislation in 1987

that said, yucca mountain is the site. why is this important? fukushima daiichi is example number one. the health and wellness of our citizens, the location of all this nuclear waste. and we have to continue to highlight these concerns because the nuclear waste isn't going away. in fact, we've got some nuclear power plants being constructed right now. maybe in 10 or 15 years they'll start generating and when they do they'll start creating nuclear waste and that nuclear waste is going to have to go somewhere. now, the question that we highlighted throughout this year , will finish in a couple of months, should that be in all these states and all these locations or should it be at a single repository?

mr. speaker, i look forward to coming down numerous times in the future to continue to identify each state, each senator, and then allow the public the information so that they can make a decision, if this is an important criteria in this next lenks cycle. i hope that the -- election cycle. i hope that the answer would be yes so that we'd follow up on a national policy to deal with high level nuclear waste. we've only spent $15.5 billion and over 20 years to identify yucca mountain as the site. if we were to try to find a new site, we throw away the $15 billion, the 20 years of research, and we'll have to have another 20-year time of research and development and another $15 billion to get to the same

location we are today. mr. speaker, i appreciate your time and with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the chair recognizes the gentleman from iowa, mr. king. for 30 minutes. mr. king: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate the privilege and the honor to be recognized to address you here on the floor of the united states house of representatives and to follow the gentleman from illinois, mr. shimkus, here in the well. and i want to first say that he makes clear sense with the

argument he makes. we don't hear these arguments often enough and too often this congress is dealing with sue puffer louis issues. it brings to mind for me the president's speech last night, from in front of where you are right now, mr. speaker, and very early in his speech the president said he wants to see a future where we are in control of our own energy. well, that statement -- and part of that solution is encompassed by the delivery of john shimkus a little bit ago, about nuclear waste. there are other things we can do from a technical perspective to utilize that, recycle that and some of the nuclear waste is tied up because of an executive order that was signed by president jimmy carter, clear back morp than 30 years ago. we haven't cracked the code on how to resolve that even though the science has caught up. we have a long ways to go and we need to have an administration

that actually means this. a future where we are in control of our own energy. the instant that i heard that statement last night, mr. speaker, it occurred to me that the president's in control of our energy but the american people are not in control of our own energy. and i would point out the keystone x.l. pipeline for an example and i heard an instantaneous rumbling here on the floor of the house of representatives when the statement was made that we were going to be in control of our own energy. also the president said that he wants to see an all-of-the-above energy policy. well, the all-of-the-above policy includes responsible utilization of all the nuclear fuel that we have and then responsible positioning of it when we can no longer utilize the energy within it. but it also includes drilling offshore and it includes drilling the non-national park public lands in the united states and it includes bringing in energy from other places on

the northern american continent from our friends. our number one trading partner, canada, our good friends to the north, they are in energy export despair right now, mr. speaker, because they've listened to what the president had to say. for three years the study has gone on about the keystone x.l. pipeline. 1,660 miles of pipeline that runs from canada down to the gulf coast and it allows for a spur to go off of that to a future refinery that i hope is build in southeastern south dakota and that would be able to transfer the refined oil that would come from northern alberta in the oil stands in northern alberta and be able to distribute that across the country, primarily to points from there, south and east. mr. speaker, the president has blocked the keystone x.l. pipeline and he announced last night that he's homing up 75% of the -- opening up 75% of the federal lands that are eligible, i think, would be a fair way to

characterize his statement, to drilling for oil. . 's news to all of us. it's news to the oil industry, i believe. and the previous state of the union address that he gave, if i recall correctly, he mentioned he has opened up drilling in the gulf coast again. at least one of these addresses that he made that's what he has said. but when you look at the permit it's a different story. they say they are opening up permits again after the b.p. spill, but we have lost a lot of deep water rigs to other parts of the oil developing world, including outside the western hemisphere. and the industry tells me once you lose a big rig from a location, it takes about 4 1/2 years to transition it back into the gulf coast again. that's happened to rig after rig down off the gulf coast. the announcement that this is the most oil that we have produced, owe most petroleum we have produced to domestically in eight years, maybe true. i don't know anyone else that

knew those numbers in this chamber, either, and i'm wondering how they defined it, how they quantified it. in any case, we have a lot of oil that's being produced up in north dakota. the reason for that, mr. speaker, is because they found the oil up there, it's on private land. the federal government has not as many tools to obstruct the development of oil production in that region of north dakota as they might have in that 75% of the federal property that the president addressed last night. i don't know that any of us believe that he's real serious about wanting to develop american energy, especially american petroleum energy, and if he was serious about it, why would he not direct the secretary of state, hillary clinton, who he spoke kindly of last night, why would he not direct her to sign the agreement with canada so we can go ahead and build the keystone x.l. pipeline? that's the only federal procedural obstruction left in the way is the permit that is the agreement between canada and the united states that all it's required to do is drop that last section of pipe in

place right there at the 49th parallel at the border between the united states and canada. the rest of that is all green light. if it weren't for the fear that the billions that would be invested for a real return, not to mention the 100,000 jobs that would be created if you look at the iteration that is come forth not just the construction of the pipeline but the operation of and the economic development that flows from it, 100,000 jobs. the speech last night was about jobs and we can't have the 20,000 jobs instantaneously lit up by the keystone x.l. pipeline or the additional 80,000 jobs that flow from the economic development from the keystone x.l. pipeline, and why? not because there is a legitimate environmental concern, there is not one left. and not because as the president said he needs more time to study it, there has been three years to study it. think about how this works if you are the president of the

united states. you are constantly barraged with decision that is must be made, and you have set up a network, a pyramid of advisors that filter that so you are only dealing with the most difficult problems that there are. your subordinates take care of all the decisions. just the most difficult. no one, no matter how smart, no matter how quick, really has the mental space to deal with all of the things that go on here in the united states of america. it is humanly impossible. and so the president has a series of advisors. they advise him. the president has said, i haven't had time to study the keystone x.l. pipeline. well, the president of the united states is never going to have time to study all the nuances that have to do with all of the components of the keystone x.l. pipeline. hardly any member of congress could dedicate a career to all the things there are to know about the keystone x.l. pipeline. it isn't how we make decisions in the real world. it isn't how the president makes decisions in the real world. what if the iranians launched a nuke and it was in the air,

would the president say, i don't have time to make a decision, i'd like to think not. i'd like to believe, mr. speaker, that the president would make that decision in a split second heartbeat. in fact, i'd like to believe he had that delegated so there could be instantaneous action and we could shoot that missile down before it could get over the continental united states and be within the cone of its target. i'd like to think that would happen. i'd like to think the president had a fail-safe systems in place to protect us from national defense, and i'd like to think he has a system in place where he can trust his advisors to look at something that is conceptually like the keystone x.l. pipeline. and be able to say, mr. president, we studied this for three years. if i'm listening to that briefing, it's already cleared a lot for me at that point, and what have you found out would be my question if i had to ask it. and the anti-would be, there is no environmental -- and the answer would be, there is no environmental risk. zero. we have tens of thousands of miles of pipeline that pump a

lot more things more toxic than crude oil, underneath the ground of the united states of america and the average number of problems we have that i hear about is zero. and so if we had had spills from an oil pipeline, i guarantee you the environmental extremists would have let us know and they would have embellished it to the point everybody in america would know how horrible it might be if one of those pipelines got a crack in it and some oil seeped out. but instead, environmental extremists come with this argument. my gosh, it goes over the aquifer, it's an important aquifer, a wonderful fresh water aquifer, they pump water out of it to irrigate and water cattle and people. that's all true. it's also true there are hundreds of miles of pipeline that run over the top of the aquifer now and some of them have things in it that are less digestible than the petroleum coming out of the oil sands in northern alberta. i don't have heartburn over that because we have already

established we can build pipelines effectively and we can build them safely with a very, very, very minimal risk to any spills, statistically it's almost zero. and by the way, mr. speaker, i'm not just speaking as someone who has an opinion having read a briefing document put together by someone else. i'm actually a guy that's gone out and worked on a pipeline, built pipelines, i have been down in the ditch, up on the bang, a welding helper, i build pipelines in kansas, i build them in iowa, and i understand the mechanics of it and the system. i understand the labor structure, the business component of it. by the way i'd say this to the keystone x.l. pipeline people. let's do this. let's take the risk. there's a lot of money invested now anyway. this country needs to move forward. this pipeline will be built. it will either be built with the approval of this president, or it will be built after the disapproval of the american people elect us a new president. so why wouldn't we just take

this risk and move this ball down the field a little ways, start that investment, and build this pipeline in the united states, build all of it that's appropriate. the only thing that can't be done is, you can't cross the 49th parallel. you can't come down from canada right up to that line. we don't know how wide our border is. it's infinitely narrow at least in theory. let's say a 20-foot section of pipe. stop 10 feet from the 49th parallel, take the g.p.s. locator out there, drive a stake in it. step over the other side, bring your passport, then step over the other side, and start 10 feet south of the 49th parallel and build that pipeline all the way down to the gulf coast. now we have it all built except for 20 feet. we have done it all within the law, all within the regulations, everything else is all clear and wide open. that 20-foot section of pipe can sit there, then, on the spoil pile. can still there and we can look at that for a while. let's set up a webcam and

website and all the american people and everybody around the world, including the oil shakes -- sikhs and cartels, they can watch, too, on the webcam on the website as that piece of pipe 20 feet long sits there waiting. for the president to let hillary clinton sign the agreement with canada. so that 20-foot section of pipe could be set in place and welded. then we could open up the valve and send that oil down to the refineries. what a breath of economic fresh air that would be. mr. speaker, that's what should be done. and with the website and the webcam a watching this still piece of pipe sitting there on the spoil pile right at the 49th parallel, what we need to have also is a counter on there, that is how many days they stalled, how long does he have to think about it now? and how much money is being lost and how many jobs are being lost? three little counters there on that website along with the

webcam shot of the still photo of -- we can make it a video, can't we, of the section of pipe 20 feet long sitting there. 10 feet in canada, 10 in the united states. by the way, somebody's going to sign that permit someday. sooner rather than later. whether it is the new secretary of state that will be appointed by the successor to barack obama, or whether it's hillary clinton that would sign that agreement. i'm standing here, mr. speaker, saying this will happen. the keystone x.l. pipeline will be built. the american people support it. they know it's environmentally safe and sound. the labor unions want it. there's a tugging of war going on within the political support base for the president. and he found himself in a situation where he had to decide between environmental extremists, a very strong base for him, or the labor unions. another strong base for him. and he essentially said to america, i'm making a political decision here and i'll go with

my environmental extremist friends. the labor unions will have to swallow this one for a while. that's the answer. and he told us he didn't have time to study it. and congress said you shall come back with an answer within 60 days of whether this is an economic secure risk for the united states, this pipeline, whether it needs to be built for economic secure reasons or not. national security reasons or not. and 28 days into the 60 days that he had to study it -- remember, he had all those three years to study like everybody else, and all those advisors boil it down and give him one or two or three points is all he needed to know, but instead he opted to jump the gun, go only 28 days into the 60-day period of time he had, then say i didn't have time. how would that be? what if he had to go out and run a race that was 30 or 60 laps long and you run that race for 28 of the 60 laps and you go, well, i didn't have time to finish the race so i'm quitting now. cut this thing off. shut it down. we know the difference, the

american people, mr. speaker, know the difference between reasons and excuses. the president has given the lamest of excuses. no thinking person in the country believes it was a reason that he didn't have time to study the keystone x.l. pipeline. it will be built. we need to build it all within the united states and within canada. leave out that 20-foot section. and for the people that might want it, it is a 50-foot section. i'm good with all that. i won't quibble. here's what i'll do personally if you let me, i'll swing that section of pipe into place, myself, and i'll go down there and grab the welder and weld it in place myself and i will weld my initials on that pipe and the date. and that date and time will coincide with the last date and time that will be on the website that will be ticker taped rolling through telling us how much money it's costing not to complete that keystone x.l. pipeline. how many days it's been. how many jobs it's cost. and this economic development piece.

so a president that comes to the floor and says last night i'm for all of the above energy policy, well, let's see. except for the keystone x.l. pipeline. except for drilling offshore if that means actually issuing permits. except for this mystery that how much public lands he's going to hold off of the production. i think we ought to drill on the nonnational park public lands where there is oil. we don't know how much oil there is in the united states. we haven't been able to examine it. we don't have -- we have not committed the resources to do the inventory. we used to have an inventory there was 406 trillion cubic feet of natural gas avail -- available in the united states. we know that number is higher. and we look at the tracking -- fracking technology. but if he's for all of the above, the e.p.a. should not be turning over every stone, looking at every gee logical nook and cranny trying to come up with a way to block

fracking. the technology that's opened up so much energy to this country. developed by americans. we have 1.2 million utilizations of fracking, and now the e.p.a. has found some elements that could be -- could have been potentially used in a shallow water location someplace in wyoming that they say could have actually come from a fracking utilization in a well somewhere. they have not tied it together. they just run that red herring up the flagpole and now the environmentalists and hyper ventilate and they can find another way to shut down energy production in america. why? what's going through the thick skulls of these people? to the american people, why do they have patience with that kind of thinking? the effort that goes after the economic development efforts in the united states. what's going on? and here's what's behind it. the president alluded to that last night, too. he doesn't think the votes are in this congress to pass cap and tax. wait a minute.

i might have amended the president's quote a little bit. back up just a little and say he didn't think the votes were here to pass his proposal, or his version in the speech last night of cap and trade. no, they aren't. because the american people have wised up and so have a lot of members of congress and we have 89 new freshmen republicans in this place, many of them the result of what happens when you try to advance bad policies through this congress. . so the votes aren't there for cap and tax. that's true. the e.p.a. is looking to implement it by order of the president and his public statement that they could implement and promulgate rules to end up with the same thing. as cap and tax. now, cap and tax -- and so underneath that is the almost religious belief by environmental extremists that if you burn petroleum products and these hydrocarbons release into the atmosphere, co-2, and it does, by the way, i can see that

-- i concede that point, the co-2 in the atmosphere, they believe, is the cause of global warming. now, first you have to come to a conclusion that global warming is taking place and then you have to come to the conclusion that it's an unnatural global warming taking place, caused by activity of man. then you have to conclude the activity of man that causes it is the release and suspension of co-2 into the atmosphere. so i listen to all and that that is a tough equation to make and it was really hard for the people at the university and penn state, michael man and some of those other people, to make that case. they had to fabricate. remember? mr. speaker, they had to fabricate the case for the actual data that would support even that the earth was getting warmer, let alone the calculations that it's being caused by co-2 suspend the in the atmosphere, let alone that that co-2 is source from industry, let alone that that industry is primarily u.s. industry. so, i just ask a few, you might

call them dumb questions, mr. speaker, i call them simple questions. the basic questions that i sometimes fight out nobody asks. everybody is a specialist now and they only deal with the exobet of the overall picture. they don't look at the big picture and say, arrange this so a rational mind can come to a conclusion. do that first and then we'll get to the details. and so the physicists deal with the formula that are handed to them by the meteorologists and the data that comes from other places, they accept what comes to them and work within their zone and then who picks up the whole picture? i don't know. so i just ask this question. tell me, if co-2's spended -- suspended in the atmosphere by u.s. industry, is the cause of the theory that global warming exists, then would you tell me, how much co-2 is in the atmosphere from u.s. industry? because they propose they're going to cut it by 1/17 and each year until the year 2050.

so if they know the formula that's going to turn down the earth's thermostat and by the way i spent a lot of my life cold so i'm not sure that's a good idea, but i do know that on their comparison chart they have a whole list of bads on one side and no lists of goods. good things that might happen from a warmer earth. and so i look at this and, all right, so show me. i want to know, how much atmosphere has the gravity of the earth attracted throughout all this time of it orbiting around the sun and floating through the galaxy? so we get this answer back. it's not a disputed number. the gravities pull at so many metric tons. i don't have the number committed to memory. now we know how much atmosphere there is. now i'd like to know how much of that atmosphere is co-2 suspended it as a result of the cumulative effect of u.s. industry since the beginning of the dawn of the industrial revolution. that calculated out to be when we did this 205 years of industrial revolution.

so, we had this, now take all of this atmospheric -- atmosphere of the earth, draw it in a circle for me. two seats of -- sheets of dry wall, so to speak, an eight-foot diameter circle, all the way around, that's the size of the earth's atmosphere on your pie chart. now, mr. speaker, i'd ask, think about how big a circle would you draw in the middle of that eight-foot diameter circle in order to demonstrate the total volume of the co-2 that's suspended in the earth's atmosphere, the cumulative fegget for -- effect for 205 years of the industrial revolution, this thing that we're going to reduce by 1/17 of its emissions yeach year -- each year, by the way, that's 1/17 of 1/205 the first year. we're going to adjust that and use that to turn the earth's thermostat down, how big is that circle of co-2 suspended in the atmosphere? i'm not going to put you on the spot but i'll just say, here's the answer. one might imagine that it's a four-foot circle of co-2 suspended or something that

could really impact the earth's temperature. well, it's not. it is .56, mr. speaker, just a little over a half an inch in diameter. that's the size of the co-2 that's suspended in the earth's atmosphere, the cumulative effect for 205 years of u.s. industry. some of those times when we were belching a lot of smoke out into the atmosphere from burning raw coal in ways that are not as clean as they are now. so i looked at that and thought, are you kidding me? an eight-foot circle is the earth's atmosphere and we're going to take this .56 circle of all the c.o. -- co-2 that's in there from the u.s. and we're going to reduce that by 1/17 which is actually 1/17 of the 205 years that it has accumulated, we're going to do that for the next 50 years and dial the earth's temperature down? what utter arrogance to think that we could do that. haven't the physicists looked at this also? i don't think they have. and so then i go back and, see, i'm a generalist, so i go across

other studies and i found a book called "human universals" and it's written by a professor brown from the university of california at berkley and i don't usually go there to find my enlightened authors but he's the only one i could find who has written a book on human universals. what are the common denominators of humanity? what do you see in human beings that has been true since the beginning of time, the first civilization? what did adam and eve do and what did every generation of humanity do that was common to them then, that's common to us now and common to every generation across all cultures, civilizations, continents and tribes? and there are a list of about 120 things in this book and explains almost all of them but one of them, mr. speaker, that's human universal is every generation of man has tried to, not just worship the weather, or was affected by the weather, every generation of man has tried to change the weather. to change the weather. they sacrificed virgins down in

central america and sometimes ripped their heart out and threw threm down in the pit and that was going to change the weather and get it to rain or not rain as the situation called for. i just wonder, mr. speaker, if this cap and tax is not the modern version of the rain dance. and the weather's probably not going to change because we argue in here and it's probably not going to change because we change the emissions. i think we should, though, put our factories together and control our emissions and have the cleanest atmosphere we can have because it's good for the air we breathe. but i think it's utter arrogance to believe we're going to adjust the earth's thermostat with the methodology that we have here. but we do know the methodology of cap and tax, it was advocated by the president last night. it's the methodology that will transfer our wealth and our industry to countries that care a lot less about the atmosphere. which is my point, mr. speaker, and then i didn't really intend to go down that path but i thought it was important to bring it up and make another point that came to my attention last night and it was in the

very early part of the president's speech. he spoke of being -- this is the first time in two decades that osama bin laden doesn't threaten the american people. very good thing. and i give the president maximum cudeows for that and -- kudos for that and the seals of course. it was the right decision and right order and right result. a very good thing. but he went on to say and by the way he delivered that in a subtle fashion that was becoming of the president of the united states in the speech he gave last night, but he went on to say the taliban's momentum has been broken. i disagree. to this extent. the taliban's momentum has shifted from military tactical to political. they have a lot of political momentum. it's not been broken. their political momentum has been accelerated, mr. speaker. and i would make this point, that if we look at the country of afghanistan and look back through its history, starting at the end of the 1970's, beginning of the 1980's, well, when the

russians invaded afghanistan, the northern alliance, the muge i had keen, many of them at -- mujaheddin, many of them at the time took on the russians and fought them through that decade with the help of charlie wilson and at least one member in this congress seated today, the help from u.s. missiles that took out russian helicopters, but the tenacity of the northern alliance today, the tribes from the northern part of afghanistan that took on the russians and drove the russians out of afghanistan, the northern alliance leaders today, the men who mounted horseback anthemselves led the cavalry charge on horseback and attacked russian tanks with ak-47's in thank you their hands, these courageous men -- in their hands, these courageous men are the men who drove the russians out of afghanistan and at that point there was a power vacuum. -- vacuum. the taliban filled up afghanistan. they blew up the buddhist temples, they drove the life expectancy of a woman down to the only country in the world

that had that lower life expectancy of women than men was afghanistan. they treated them horribley. afghanistan was digressing back to the stone age. it was a fertile area for al qaeda training camps. we got hit september 11, the united states went in with special forces, the northern alliance rose up again and with our help drove the taliban out of afghanistan and then they handed over their heavy weapons and embraced the constitution that was proposed by the united states state department accepting that we would look out for their political interests and what do they have? these warriors who defeated the russians and the taliban and lost their political influence because they trusted the constitution to represent them and gave up their heavy weapons are now watching the white house and president karzai negotiate with the taliban. the taliban's momentum has not been broken, it's been transitioned into political power and they are looking today to hand political power over to the taliban in afghanistan so

that they -- the afghanistan government will reflect the wishes of the taliban and less reflect the wishes of the northern alliance. mr. speaker, i inquire as to how much time i have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. king: i suspected that was the case. i thank you for your attention, the opportunity to address you, and appreciate that privilege and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman rise for a question? mr. king: i move the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house stands adjourned until 11:00 a.m. on friday, january

>> a look at gabrielle giffords as she came to the floor prior to the attributes -- tributes and prior to her handing in her resignation letter. what you're seeing on the screen are the house graphics for the vote on the bill that was under way as she came to the floor this morning.

the speaker: any member wish to change her vote?

the speaker: on this vote the yeas are 338. the noes are 70. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the house will be in order. members could take their seats.

the speaker: for what purpose does the gentlelady from california rise? ms. pelosi: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order. the speaker: without objection, so ordered. ms. pelosi: all of us come to floor today, colleagues of congresswoman gabby giffords, to salute her as the brightest star among us, the brightest star congress has ever seen. when she came to congress and in her service and leadership

here, gabby giffords brought to washington and the capitol the views of a new generation of national leader, from this floor she has spoken out courageously and led boldly, at times that demanded both. since the tragic events of one year ago, congresswoman giffords has become an inspiring symbol of determination and courage to millions of americans. she has brought the word dignity to new heights by her courage. congresswoman giffords' message of bipartisanship and civility is one that all in washington and in the nation should honor

and emulate. as gabby said in her video, which moved us all so much this weekend, we can do so much more by working together. in that vain, mr. speaker, i want to thank you for the courtesies extended to enable this extraordinary ceremony to take place today. thank you, mr. speaker. s with your permission i'd like to acknowledge gabby's mother who is with us today, gloria and her father, spencer, who is watching from tucson. gloria.

we thank you and we thank commander mark kelly, a hero in his own right as a astronaut, a hero in his own right as a astronaut, and commander of a mission, but also our personal hero for the care and love that he has given to gabby over this past year. oh, and before that to help make her as gloria and spencer have the person that she is. i join all, i think all of our colleagues join us in thanking you, gabby, for the honor of calling you colleague and wishing you and mark much happiness and success. you will be missed in the house

of representatives, but your legacy in this congress and your leadership in our nation will certainly endure. so thank you for being who you are, for lifting our country at a very important and sad time and we wish you again much success with great gratitude, of admiration, and affection. we salute you congresswoman gabby giffords. does the gentleman seek recognition on my privilege to yield the floor to the distinguished majority leader

of the house, representative cantor. mr. cantor: i thank the leader. mr. speaker, a little more than a year ago america witnessed a heinous attack on congresswoman gabby giffords, her staff, and the citizens of tucson. this attack took six innocent lives, including gabe zimmerman's. injured 13, and shook all of us in the congressional community and in fact our nation to its core. this attack was a stark reminder that even in this country where freedom of speech and public demonstration are the corner stones of our democracy, citizens and public officials can face violence and danger. we will never forget those who lost their life on that fateful day or the brave efforts of our law enforcement community members and a very special

intern who responded in the emergency. mr. speaker, i know i speak for all of my colleagues when i say we are inspired, hopeful, and blessed for the incredible progress that gabby has made in her recovery. gabby's courage, her strength, and her down right fortitude are an inspiration to all of us and all americans. as gabby leaves the house today, mr. speaker, she's decided to focus her injuries on recovery, but she has refused to give up her fight

for the people of her beloved arizona and her country. and as such, today, we will vote on her legislation to help secure our nation's southwestern border. gabby's bill gives law enforcement greater authority to penalize those who seek to do us harm by engaging in illegal activity along the border. i commend gabby for her commitment to work on this and her unwavering commitment to a safer, more secure america. for the past six years congresswoman gabby giffords has served arizona's eighth district with dedication and dignity. i want to recognize her accomplishments here and thank her staff and their exceptional service, dedication, and, yes, courage, during these difficult

times. mr. speaker, i especially want to recognize her chief of staff, pia i know having met with pia personally, her having worked with our office, she has demonstrated incredible

dedication to her co-workers, to you, gabby, and, mr. speaker, she has demonstrated unparalleled leadership for the people of the eighth district of arizona. to that i know they are and we are very grateful. on sunday, mr. speaker, i received a call from captain mark kelly, as we all know gabby's husband, who informed me of gabby's decision. mark has been steadfast in his support of his wife and forever by her side as her best friend and partner. though gabby may be leaving washington today, i know this won't be the last we see of her or mark. we wish you, gabby, we wish mark together the best as they continue the process of gabby's recovery. i will say once again, mr. speaker, congresswoman gabby

giffords' strength against all odds serves and will continue to serve as a daily inspiration to all of us. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker: the gentlelady from california. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the leader. now pleased to yield to gabby's friend, distinguished minority whip of the house, congressman hoyer. mr. hoyer: i thank the leader for yielding. i thank the speaker for ensuring that we would have this opportunity to speak to our friend, gabby giffords. i thank the majority leader for

his comments. none of us on this floor are talented enough to summon the rhetoric that all of us feel in our hearts. we have young men and women arrayed on the fields in iraq, afghanistan, and other troubled spots in the world. they are fighting for freedom and democracy. and too many of them are injured on those fields. our beloved colleague, gabrielle giffords, was injured on the field in the exercise of that democracy. and in being injured, she has become an example for us, for all americans, indeed all the world of courage, of clarity of

purpose, of grace, of responsibility, of a sense of duty. which she exercises this day. i love gabby giffords. i was honored when she first ran for office before she was elected to go to her district as i have done for so many others in this country, to stand by her side, to walk down the streets of her community with her, to see in her the beauty not only of person, many of us see the outward vissage of us all, but gabby's beauty is in the heart. in the soul, in the spirit. the

representatives of america has been made proud by this extraordinary daughter of this house who served so well during her tenure here, who felt so deeply about her constituents and cared so much for her country. gabby, we love you. we have missed you. mr. speaker, i don't know whether you were able to hear that response as gabby looked with that extraordinary smile, the twinkle in her eyes as she said to me and to all of you, and i miss you. do any of us doubt that that is

the case? pia, we are blessed in this house to be served by extraordinary people of which you are a perfect example, a people who love us but love their country even more, who serve our constituents so extraordinarily well, who evidence every day care for us and care for the work that we do which we could not do, pia, without people like yourself and all of your colleagues that we call staff. thank you.

mr. speaker, god has blessed gabrielle giffords and he has sent a blessing to all of us in the person of gabrielle giffords, and god blessed gabby as well with an extraordinary mom and dad and an extraordinary partner in life. mark, we owe you a debt of gratitude. our country owes you a debt of gratitude. i look forward to the day when you and gabby will be returning here, return to full health and full ability to serve. gabby, america thanks you. it thanks you for the example that you have given, of overcoming adversity and doing so with the spirit

unparalleled. god bless you and god speed. ms. pelosi: mr. speaker, i know that every member in the house would like to associate himself or herself with the remarks of our distinguished majority leader and democratic whip, especially in regards to gabby, of course, but also pia. it is something that every day we have the chaplain or the guest chaplain come to the floor and ask god's blessing on this house. one of those blessings to us has certainly been the leadership and the life and

service that will continue for many years to come of congresswoman gabby giffords. we focus on her. she is our friend. we look at her remarkable recovery with great pride. she also carries in her need for recovery the sorrow of so many others who lost their lives today. so the apparent physical recovery that we see is something even more than we could ever imagine for the challenge that congresswoman giffords has faced. god gave her a very special mission. he gave it to gabby giffords because he knew she could carry that burden because he had blessed her with so many, many gifts and a very loving family to make her the person that she is. how fortunate we have all been to be part of her life until now and hopefully for a long time to come.

she will miss us. it is -- so now it is with very mixed emotions, mr. speaker, that i yield to gabby's very good and close friend, i say mixed emotions because we want her to stay with us, intellectually known, gabby has made the right decision. hopefully it will be liberating for her in many ways. but that she goes without knowing the close ties we all feel personally to her. and so, mr. speaker, it is my honor to yield to a very close friend of gabby, a leader in this house, congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. the speaker: the gentlelady from florida is recognized.

ms. wasserman schultz: if i could ask my colleague to join me at the well. thank you, mr. speaker, and madam leader. mr. whip and majority leader, i couldn't prepare anything this morning because i knew i would not be able to hold this together very long. i am so proud of my friend and it will always be one of the great treasures of my life to have met gabby giffords and to have served with her in this body. we have all been through such a tumultuous year. the nation has been through a tumultuous year. no one more tumultuous than gabby and her family and her constituents in her beloved home city of tucson, arizona, and i know being able to be gabby's voice today, knowing her as well as i do, the one

thing that has not been said is that gabby wants her constituents to know, her constituents whom she loves so much in southern arizona, that it has been the greatest professional privilege of her life to represent them, that she loves them as a fifth generation tucsonian, that her public service has meant a great deal to her and that this is only is a pause in that public service and that she will return one day to public service to represent them as she has so capablely for the last 5 1/2 years -- capably for the last 5 1/2 years. and let me just say a point of personal privilege for the last year it has been one of the honors of my life and the most important thing to remember

that no matter what we argue about here on this floor or in this country that there is nothing more important than family and friendship and that should be held above all else and i will always carry that in my heart and even though i know we won't see each other every day, gabby, we will be friends for life. for life. i'm so sorry. my privilege to read this letter on behalf of gabby and her family and her constituents. january 25, 2012. the honorable john boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. dear speaker boehner, in 2001 strongly holding the belief that there is no higher calling than serving my country, i went

from selling tires in my tucson family business to being a freshman representative in the arizona state house, and for 10 years i served in the years legislature, in the united states congress and after marrying mark, as a proud military spouse. always i fought for what i thought was right -- never did i let pass an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideas. in public service, i found a venue for my pursuit of a stronger america, by ensuring the safety and security of all americans, by producing clean energy here at home instead of importing oil from abroad and by honoring our brave men and women in uniform with the benefits they earned. i found a way to care for others, and in the past year i have found the value that is unbreakable even by the most vicious of attacks.

the tragic january 8 shooting in tucson took the lives of six beautiful americans and wounded 13 others, me included. i'm sorry. not a day goes by that i don't feel grief for the lives lost and so many others torn apart. christina taylor green, dorothy morris, john rolle, phyllis, dorwin and gabe zimmerman. each in their own way they committed their lives of serving their families, community and country and they died performing a basic act of citizenship that's at the heart of our greatness as a nation. they will be required always by their country and by their congress. i don't remember much from that terrible day, but i have never forgotten my constituents, my colleagues or the millions of americans with whom i share great hopes for this nation.

to all of them, thank you for your prayers, your cards, your well wishes and your support. and even as i have worked to regain my speech, thank you for your faith in my ability to be your voice. the only way i ever served my district in congress was by giving 100%. i would add it's 150%. this past year, that's what i have given to my recovery. thank you for your patience. from my first steps and first words after being shot to my current physical and speech therapy, i have given all of myself to being able to walk back on the house floor to represent arizona's eighth congressional district. however, today i know that now is not the time. i have more work to do on my recovery before i can begin serve in elected office. this past year my colleagues and staff have worked to make sure my constituents were represented in congress. but if i can't return, my district deserves to elect a

u.s. representative who can give 100% to the job now. for that reason i have submitted the attached letter of resignation to arizona governor jan brewer. amid all that was lost on january 8, there was also hope and faith. this past year it is what i have often come to, hope in a our government can represent the best of a nation, not the worst, faith that americans working together in their communities, in our congress can succeed without qualification, hope and faith that even as we are set back by tragedies or profound disagreement. in the end we come together as americans to set a course toward greatness. every day i am working hard. i will recover and will return and we will work together again for arizona and for all americans. sincerely, gabrielle giffords, member of congress.

miss pa lossy: mr. speaker, in appreciation once again for your courtesies enabling this to happen, i yield back the a if you missed any of congresswoman giffords' resignation and her colleagues' tributes to her, you can watch again any time in the video library at c-span.org. we have more live events to tell you about including coming

up in about 15 minutes. president obama is in city rapids, iowa, today to talk more about the themes he discussed in last night's state of the union speech. that's at 1:00 p.m. eastern. a bit later federal reserve chairman ben bernanke hold as news conference. this is the federal reserve says it's unlikely to raise interest rates before 2014. extending a period of record low rates by more than a year. we'll have the news conference coming up at 2:15. and at 4:45 newt gingrich campaigning in florida in advance of next tuesday's republican presidential primary election. next week the senate select committee on intelligence will be hearing about global threats to the u.s. it's their annual hearing on the issue. witnesses include the head of the c.i.a., the f.b.i. director, among other intelligence chiefs. we'll have live coverage of that here on c-span next tuesday, the 31st, at 10:00 a.m. eastern. for more resources in the presidential race, use c-span's campaign 2012 website to watch

videos of the candidates on the campaign trail, see what the candidates have said on issues important to you and read the latest from candidates, political reporters and people like you from social media sites at c-span.org/campaign2012. well, president obama on the scene in seeder rapids a bit earlier than expected. we'll take you there live now on c-span. >> thank you, thank you, everybody, please have a seat. it is great to be back in iowa. although it is a little colder here than it was in washington. i want to thank jeff for the introduction. it's good to see your governor, governor bran stad, and the mayor, outstanding members of the congressional delegation, all kinds of good friends. in fact this whole row here, if i start introducing them it will make my speech twice as long.

but i love these guys. and it is wonderful to be back here in iowa. you know, i know there's been a lot of excitement here over the past couple of months. it kind of made me nostalgic. [laughter] i used to have a lot of fun here in iowa. i remember a great backyard barbeque out in marion, way back in 2007. goodburgers. i did not have as much gray hair back then. but, you know, when i think about all the days i've spent in iowa, so much of my presidency, so much about what i care about, so much of what i think about every day has to do with the conferences that i had with you -- conversations that i had with you. people's backyards, v.f.w. halls. those conversations i carry with me.

all across this state, in all 99 counties, and i was in i think just about every county. we talked about how for years the middle class was having a tougher time. hard work had stopped paying off for too many people. good jobs and manufacturing were leaving our shores. folks at the very, very top saw their incomes rise like never before but most americans, most folks in iowa were just trying to stay afloat. and that was before the financial crisis hit in 2008. you know, the crisis struck right at the end of a long campaign. but we didn't even understand at that point how bad that

crisis was going to be. and millions of our neighbors were put out of work. but we did know then what we know today. that when we come together as a country there's no reason why we can't restore that basic american promise that if you work hard, you can do well. america's not about handouts. america's about earning everything you've got. but if you're willing to put in the work, the idea is that you should be able to raise a family and own a home, not go bankrupt because you got sick, because you've got some health insurance that helps you deal with those difficult times. that you can send your kids to college, that you can put some money away for retirement.

that's all most people want. you know, folks don't have unrealistic ambitions. they do believe that if they work hard, they should be able to achieve that small measure of an american dream. that's what this country is about. that's what you deserve. that's what we talked about. during the campaign. today, three years after the worst economic storm in three generations, we are making progress. our businesses have created more than three million jobs over the last 22 months. if you look at a job chart, if you look at a chart of what's happened in terms of jobs in america, we lost four million jobs before i took office, another four million in the few months right after i took office, before our economic policies had a chance to take effect, and we've been growing

and increasing jobs ever since. three million over the last 22 months. last year we created the most jobs since 2005. and today american manufacturers like this one are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since the 1990's. and that's good news. our economy is getting stronger . we've got a lot of work to do but it's getting stronger. and we've come way too far to turn back now. after everything that's happened there are people in washington who seem to have collective amnesia. they seem to have forgotten how we got into this mess. they want to go back to the very same policies that got us into it. the same policies that have stacked the deck against middle class americans for years.

and their philosophy, what there is of it, seems to be pretty simple. we're better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and everybody can play by their own rules. and i'm here to say they're wrong. we're not -- [applause] we're not going to go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing and bad debt and phony financial problems. that's not how america was built, we're not going to go back to that. so last night in the state of the union i laid out my vision for how we move forward. i laid out a blueprint for an economy that is built to last. [applause]

it's an economy built on american manufacturing with more good jobs and more products made right here in the united states of america. [applause] it's an economy built on american energy, fueled by home groun and alternative energy sources that make us more secure and less dependent on foreign oil. and by the way there's a connection between these two things. this company right here, some of its key customers are folks who are active in alternative energy. there are jobs to be had and iowa knows all about it. when we are pursuing aggressively clean energy and alternative energy.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> we're having technical difficulty with our live coverage in iowa. we will work to correct the problems and bring you that speech as soon as we can. while we wait, here's a portion of this morning's "washington journal." host: thanks very much for being with us. guest: thanks for having me. host: let's go right to the speech. what did you think? guest: i was there but i'd like to read a couple of quotes because i think it will help to frame the question this morning. the first quote and hopefully the audience will know who these came from. it says the american republic will endure until the day congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. the second quote, a democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. it can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from

the public treasury. from that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy. always followed by dictatorship. the average age of the world's greatest civilizations have been 200 years. so let's see if any of the listeners out there know exactly who said this and where it came from. i will tell you this. with the speech from last night. i spent 22 years in the united states military, been through a couple of combat zones so i've been on missions before and i appreciate the president paying honor to those men and women in uniform and all the great things they've done but when you talk about missions, one of the things the president should have brought up last night was the fact that we were at 1,000 days yesterday without the senate having passed a budget. and i think that's very important, if we're going to get this economic situation on the right track, if we're going to get the federal government on the right track. and when the president has already -- his administration has already told congress that

they're going to have to push back the deadline for submitting a budget because they're not ready too that, that goes back to -- to do that, that goes back to mission. host: i understand where the republicans are coming from. when the speaker of the house on sunday calls the president's state of the union speech pathetic before even hearing what's in his speech and when the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, saying his job is to make barack obama a one-term president, how then can both parties come to some sort of a compromise on some of the big issues? guest: i think that there were some excerpts of that speech that were sent out. i will tell you that republicans did not get that speech until about 8:54 last night on our blackberries but i looked across the aisle and saw democrats with paper copies that have speech. i would have appreciated if we could have gotten it a little bit earlier. i was not here